The 1971 Indo - Pakistan War
East is East is set against the backdrop of the Indo – Pakistan War of 1971, a military conflict between India and Pakistan.
Hostilities commenced between the two countries on December 3rd 1971. The war ended in the surrender of the Eastern Command of the Pakistan Military after armed hostilities on two fronts.
In December 1970 Pakistan held general elections, its first since it gained independence from the British Empire in 1947. Pakistan consisted of West Pakistan and East Pakistan, with India geographically in the middle. The Awami Leaegue, headed by East Pakistan’s popular Bengali leader Sheikh Mujib won a majority of seats in the new assembly, but West Pakistan’s chief martial law administrator and president General Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan, refused to honour the democratic choice of the nation’s majority. At the end of March 1971, after failed negotiations in which Mujib demanded the virtual independence for East Pakistan, Yahya Khan ordered a military massacre in Dhaka. Majib was arrested and flown to prison in West Pakistan but called on his followers in the east to rise up and proclaim their independence as Bangladesh. Ten million refugees fled East Pakistan across the border to India in the following eight months of martial rule and the sporadic attacks of the West Pakistan army.
Soon after the monsoon season India’s army moved up to the Bangladesh border and by early December advanced to Dhaka which was surrendered in mid-December 1971. Mujib, released by President Bhutto, who had taken over from Yahya Khan, flew home to a hero’s welcome and in January 1972 became the first prime minister of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
India’s victory over Pakistan in the Bangladesh war was achieved in part because of Soviet military support and diplomatic assurances. The Treaty of Peace, Friendship, and Cooperation, signed in 1971 by India with the Soviet Union, gave India the arms it used in the war. In December 1971 East Pakistan gained independence and was re-named Bangladesh and with the birth of Bangladesh, India’s position in South Asia became dominant.
The Key Facts
- 1947 Pakistan and India became independent from the British Empire.
- Pakistan consisted of West Pakistan and East Pakistan, with India geographically in the middle.
- Up to 1971 the government of East Pakistan was dominated by West Pakistan. Urdu was the official language although most people in East Pakistan spoke Bengali.
- General elections in December 1970 polarized tensions in East Pakistan and civil war followed.
- India supported East Pakistan in its fight for independence.
- This led to fighting in West Pakistan and Kashmir.
- This conflict was the third time there had been war between India and Pakistan.
- December 1971 East Pakistan gained independence and was re-named Bangladesh.
Image of Lt Gen Niazi, Commander of the Pakistani Forces in East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh) signing the surrender document for Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora from Times Of India Online